Wire and rod stock often requires surface finishing after manufacture. Examples of post-manufacture finishing include pickling to remove corrosion and scale and drawing operations to reduce the diameter of the wire to "true up" the wire dimension and improve surface finish. Pickling operations do not necessarily impart a smooth or uniform surface finish to the treated wire. Drawing operations oftentimes do not eliminate deep surface irregularities since drawing operations only mask the defects.
Apparatus for scraping the surface of the wire to remove surface irregularities has been suggested in the past. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 2,703,512 disclosed a wire shaving apparatus in which a plurality of stations, each station including a scraping tool and support roller, was used to scrape the face of wire stock as it was pulled through the apparatus. It is believed that the disclosed apparatus was difficult to use and tool changes to replace broken tools or to change wire size, were burdensome. As a result, it is believed that the disclosed apparatus was not commercially successful.